Mandeville City Council members may not have had the full picture of how freely Mayor Eddie Price spent public money until the Louisiana Legislative Auditor released a wide-ranging and deeply critical audit of city finances.

But a majority of City Council members had seven meals that the mayor paid for with public funds from February 2004 to September 2007. The audit quotes two council members, Trilby Lenfant and Jerry Coogan, who said the meals were not business related.

But if it was a social occasion, why did taxpayers foot the bill?

The audit suggests that the gatherings either violated the state's open meeting law or constitutional prohibitions against using public funds for private purposes.

Mandeville is defending the meals, which cost a total of $1,538. A rebuttal to the audit says that the meals were not official meetings and no delibrations on specific issues took place. "However, this does not mean that the occasions did not serve a public purpose," the rebuttal said.

Mandeville City Council members can't have it both ways. It's not credible to argue that the meals were not official business but still public business.

Councilwoman Lenfant said that she and her colleagues were not aware of most of the issues raised by the audit. "I think what we've seen is some poor management, some poor judgment," she said.

That's an overly generous interpretation of the audit, which says that members of the city's administration may have broken state law by making personal charges on city credit cards, accepting trips for firms that do business with the city and giving out work without seeking bids.

The City Council plans to enact many of the auditor's recommendations, Councilwoman Lenfant said, including having a written policy for credit card use that requires detailed documentation and a list of all people who are being entertained. That certainly needs to happen.

But better documentation is only part of what needs to happen. Mandeville officials should also make sure that public money is spent on public business. The city's response to the audit claims that meals and celebrations serve a public purpose by promoting communication among staff members, vendors, the Planning and Zoning Board and the City Council. That's a murky standard.

The Mandeville City Council needs to show leadership in responding to this critical audit. Councilwoman Lenfant is rightly urging the council to reject proposed raises for Mayor Price and his department heads. The council also needs to revive stalled efforts to investigate how Mandeville Police handled the mayor during a traffic stop when he was driving erratically and smelled of alcohol.

Councilwoman Lenfant called the audit "the begining of a process" and said that the city will let it "take its course." But City Council members need to take an active role in cleaning up this mess.